I must say that coronavirus was not a category tag I ever imagined creating for this blog!
Tango Terra is always quieter on a Sunday, and more so this week. I think some are now deciding to err on the side of caution where the coronavirus is concerned. I heard also that the Tango Space milonga the previous evening was very quiet too …
Continue reading Getting my fix in while I can, as more London milongas close
Thursday evenings normally begin with the Tango Space intermediate lesson, but I decided to skip that tonight.
Although the Tuesday and Thursday intermediate classes are theoretically geared to the same level, in practice there’s a significant difference in attendance and approach. The Tuesday version, taught by Pablo and Eva, assumes comfort with all of the improver level content – as is reasonable, given it’s intended as the next step. It tends to attract those who are further along the intermediate scale …
Continue reading It’s true what they say about Russian tangueras …
There’s been a lot of discussion recently about how the tango community should respond to the coronavirus outbreak. By virtue of spending 12 minutes at a time in close embrace with someone, and doing that with perhaps ten or twelve different people in an evening, we clearly run a significantly greater risk of transmission than the average person.
The virus is already circulating in the European tango community, including a British tanguera who caught it there and is currently in the Royal Free (fortunately she is well enough to be posting on Facebook about it) …
Continue reading Thoughts on tango and the coronavirus outbreak
I caught the end of the lesson as usual, and it was a pleasing-looking movement.
I’m not sure whether the intermediate sequences are getting more accessible, or whether I’m making more sense of them by connecting more dots. We’ll see how I get on with Luis’ version on Thursday …
Continue reading Calesitas, chaos, criminal cabeceos and coronavirus contingencies
There’s a tradition in tango that you don’t dance the first song of a live performance, as a courtesy to the band: giving them your full attention. At Los Angelitos tonight, however, Martin Alvarado specifically asked people to dance from the first song – but it seemed nobody was going to accept the invitation.
I looked at the empty floor, looked across to one of my favourite followers, looked around at the very large number of people sat around the dance floor – then decided the opportunity was too good to be defeated by feelings of self-consciousness …
Continue reading Another tango first: the only couple on the floor for the first half of a song
Drunk tango can be a lot of fun; hungover tango, not so much.
After very much over-indulging with neighbours on Friday night, I was still feeling exceedingly delicate by the time my private started at 4.30pm on Saturday. The first song was so bad I think Julia was planning to send me back to the first beginner’s class …
Continue reading Calesita and planeo fun, despite an unpromising hungover start!
In Luis and Natalia’s intermediate class, we’d been playing with the contra-giro over the past few weeks, so they decided to do the same with the giro tonight. Or, more specifically, a medio-giro.
You can obviously enter a giro from any step – forward, backward or either side. The version I’ve used so far has been from a side-step, and the one we used tonight was from a back ocho. We played with a few different variants …
Continue reading Connecting some dots, and returning home to Tango Terra
